So what now for the UK?
Eurovision in the United Kingdom has a love/hate relationship with the general public. Speak to many people about the subject, and after they have joked about it they will admit to never missing it. Eurovision has been the butt of jokes for many years in the UK and was probably fuelled by Sir Terry Wogan, who's commentary of the show for the BBC was always full of ridicule.
It also hasn't helped that the big music artists of the UK won't go anywhere near Eurovision. Partly because they don't need to for success and also because failure could mean the end of their careers. Recently, the UK entrants have been a group of nobodies who have quickly disappeared once their participation was over.
What changed for this year? Well I think it was down to Germany's success last year. For many years, Germany had been down in the lower reaches of the final placings chart just like the UK. They entered a good song and wow, they won! Could this signal that the tide was changing in Eurovision?
So this year, the BBC went for the win! But it was not only the class of entrant that they changed. Gone was Paddy O'Connell and Sarah Cawood from the semi-final broadcasts and in came BBC Radio 1 D.J.'s Scott Mills and Sara Cox. Then, rather than holding the usual recent pre-selection show, they went out and got Blue involved. Things looking up? Certainly seemed so.
Now before I go onto the next part, let me say that even though I'm from the UK and yes I have some bias towards the UK, if the song is poor, I will say it's poor. In recent years, I think we've deserved all that we got! So please don't think that the next part is just sour grapes, it isn't.
Once I got the official CD, I started listening to the songs. Standing out for me at the time was Azerbaijan from the start, but the more and more I listened to the songs, the more I began to realise that the UK's song was really strong and stood out over the others. Would we finally have a chance of a very good finish? Or even win?
The problem obviously with listening to the songs on the CD, is that some songs don't translate well from the CD to the stage. Either through staging problems or due to the only "live" singing allowed. After watching both semi-finals, there didn't seem to be anyone who was giving a totally solid performance and staging problems seemed rife! Confidence growing!
So onto the night of the final, Blue give a good performance, but are hit by some staging problems as sometimes, a few of them were singing and you could hardly hear them. Also, Lee Ryan seemed to be struggling a bit with the high notes, but not too much. However, it still stood out.
Then the bombshell! Political voting back with a vengeance!!!!! From being in front after two juries, Blue then struggled to pick up votes and ended up in 11th with 100 points. Now if you compare that to previous recent finishes, you would think that's good. However, when you look at some of the songs that finished above them, you can only shake your head! They did the UK proud, but you can only feel sorry for them!
So how will the UK react to this? I think that it will be a long time before we see another big name/group in Eurovision for the UK, if ever. If we can't get close to a win with probably the best song in the contest, then I don't think the UK will ever win again.
So sadly, I think that the UK will go back to unknowns with very little chance of winning again! No point in putting any quality into the contest if it's not recognised.
It also hasn't helped that the big music artists of the UK won't go anywhere near Eurovision. Partly because they don't need to for success and also because failure could mean the end of their careers. Recently, the UK entrants have been a group of nobodies who have quickly disappeared once their participation was over.
What changed for this year? Well I think it was down to Germany's success last year. For many years, Germany had been down in the lower reaches of the final placings chart just like the UK. They entered a good song and wow, they won! Could this signal that the tide was changing in Eurovision?
So this year, the BBC went for the win! But it was not only the class of entrant that they changed. Gone was Paddy O'Connell and Sarah Cawood from the semi-final broadcasts and in came BBC Radio 1 D.J.'s Scott Mills and Sara Cox. Then, rather than holding the usual recent pre-selection show, they went out and got Blue involved. Things looking up? Certainly seemed so.
Now before I go onto the next part, let me say that even though I'm from the UK and yes I have some bias towards the UK, if the song is poor, I will say it's poor. In recent years, I think we've deserved all that we got! So please don't think that the next part is just sour grapes, it isn't.
Once I got the official CD, I started listening to the songs. Standing out for me at the time was Azerbaijan from the start, but the more and more I listened to the songs, the more I began to realise that the UK's song was really strong and stood out over the others. Would we finally have a chance of a very good finish? Or even win?
The problem obviously with listening to the songs on the CD, is that some songs don't translate well from the CD to the stage. Either through staging problems or due to the only "live" singing allowed. After watching both semi-finals, there didn't seem to be anyone who was giving a totally solid performance and staging problems seemed rife! Confidence growing!
So onto the night of the final, Blue give a good performance, but are hit by some staging problems as sometimes, a few of them were singing and you could hardly hear them. Also, Lee Ryan seemed to be struggling a bit with the high notes, but not too much. However, it still stood out.
Then the bombshell! Political voting back with a vengeance!!!!! From being in front after two juries, Blue then struggled to pick up votes and ended up in 11th with 100 points. Now if you compare that to previous recent finishes, you would think that's good. However, when you look at some of the songs that finished above them, you can only shake your head! They did the UK proud, but you can only feel sorry for them!
So how will the UK react to this? I think that it will be a long time before we see another big name/group in Eurovision for the UK, if ever. If we can't get close to a win with probably the best song in the contest, then I don't think the UK will ever win again.
So sadly, I think that the UK will go back to unknowns with very little chance of winning again! No point in putting any quality into the contest if it's not recognised.
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